Masonry Magazine December 1996 Page. 15
Contractors will be required to not only train each employee involved with scaffolding use, but they will now be required to have a competent person who has the training and experience necessary to make determinations as to fall protection, design of scaffolds, and assurance that the scaffold is maintained and used in a safe manner. As defined by OSHA, a competent person is defined as one who is capable of identifying existing and predictable hazards in the surrounding or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees, and who has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate them.
The competent person must have the authority to take prompt corrective measures. This authority may frequently be the deciding factor in assessing whether a particular individual is in fact a competent person under Subpart L.
The standard will become effective Nov. 29, 1996, except for one section requiring collection of information (a written certification from manufacturers of aerial lifts under certain conditions) which will not become effective until the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) takes action in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Employers will be required to comply with provisions on safe access and fall protection for employees erecting and dismantling supported scaffolds on Sept. 2, 1997.
Several nonmandatory appendices are included with the standard to assist employers in complying. They provide information on designing scaffold systems, as well as a list of national consensus standards related to aerial lifts, a list of training topics for scaffold erectors and dismantlers, and drawings and illustrations of scaffolds and scaffold components and bracing patterns and tie patterns.
It is incumbent upon each contractor to study the new document carefully and then insure that your operation is in compliance with the standard.
All of the above changes bring me to my closing. I am often asked why I belong to associations, and why I volunteer to work on committees. The answer is quite simple. Regardless of how you feel about the changes that have occurred, they are much better than they would have been, if it weren't for the associations, and their volunteers who worked so hard to try and help everyone in the industry. If you don't like the results, I suggest you get involved personally. If you do, thank the people that helped to get to this point. Associations like the Scaffolding Institute and the MCAA have worked hard to get better working environments for their members and for the industry as a whole. My hat goes off to all of them for a stupendous effort.
Robert Lee, President of Lee Masonry of Nashville, Tennessee is Chairman of the American Subcontractors Association's Legislative Committee and an MCAA member.
THE DAY AFTER BOB DOLE ANNOUNCES HIS PLAN TO ELIMINATE THE IRS:
HI-I SAW YOUR AD FOR BRICKLAYERS. I'M CURIOUS... WHAT DOES "PERSON WITH INTEGRITY" MEAN?
MASONRY-NOVEMBER/DECEMBER, 1996 15